How simple can it be?

Really.

All I used was:

1. 1/2 Avocado
2. Dash of Olive Oil
3. Dash of Salt
4. Some crushed cashews
5. Dash of Lime

I've heard many of my girl friends talk about this dish here in San Francisco. Some say it's great with a drizzle of honey. Some like to add dried berries. The best thing about this dish is that it's customizable! 

Tell me more about your customization if you have any :) 

Who likes Empanadas?
Who likes Gyozas?

Who wants to hear about a fun, delicious twist on a gyoza? 

Most of us who access this blog love curry (I hope). Especially Japanese Curry.


Today, I decided to wrap up Keema curry in the Japanese Gyoza dumpling wrappers!  

Why, you ask? Because, I was craving for a snack somewhat similar to an Empanada. Unfortunately, it's very hard to find frozen Empanadas here in Japan, but dumpling wrappers are very cheap! 

These delicious dumplings were super crunchy and crispy on the outside. The curry inside and the wrapper itself matched perfectly too. Pairs great with wine or beer. Great appetizer or finger food for parties! 

Keema curry, for those of you who have not tried it yet, is basically stir fried minced meat with curry spices. It's not runny  like the traditional Japanese curry. It's more like paste. That's why I thought it would be a great idea to wrap it up with Gyoza wrappers! 

I bought the ready-made Keema curry but I plan to post a recipe for it soon as the ready-made kind may be hard to find in the US....If you cannot find the ready-made curry but want to try this a.s.a.p, I highly recommend for you to cook some minced meat and add some salt, pepper, curry spice and maybe even some cumin? 


Steps

1. Once you have the curry cooked and ready, wrap a teaspoon of it in a Gyoza dumpling wrapper. You can use other dumpling wrappers or even some pie dough!
   If you're wondering how to wrap a gyoza dumpling, check this recipe out 
2. Heat the oven at 200C (370F) and place the dumplings in for 10-15 minutes until gold and crispy.

That's it. If you decide to use ready-made curry/meat like me, it takes less than 20 minutes. 15 minutes of it is just waiting for it to cook in the oven...

Enjoy! 

I was surprised to see DAISO (Japanese $1 store) in San Francisco selling hijiki! 

Hijiki is a very well known healthy ingredient in Japan; it's high in fiber, iron and calcium. The most popular dish which is made using this ingredient is a simple simmered dish. It's a side dish, not a main dish. People like to throw in carrots, garbanzo beans and even konnyaku. All of which can be found in the US. The ingredients are simmered in a sweet broth made of dashi, soy sauce and sugar. It's simple, tasty and very good for you. Great to pack in your obento too.

Hijiki is usually sold in its dried state. You'll have to soak it in water for 20-30 minutes. The amount will increase by 7 to 8 times; it's fun to watch :) 

Ingredients (This makes a substantial amount, maybe around 6-8 servings) 

• 1 bag of hijiki (40g) 
• Carrots
• 1/2 cup of garbanzo beans 
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 2-3 tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
  
• 3 tbsp Japanese sake
• 1.5 tsp Hondashi soup stock
• 1 cup of water
• (Optional) 3 tbsp mirin

Steps

1. Put the dried hijiki in a bowl of water and see it increase its mass by 7 to 8 times. Rinse and wash thoroughly.
2. Heat a pan on MEDIUM heat. Place some oil and stir fry the carrots, garbanzo beans and hijiki until heated through.
3. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sake, soup stock and water (optional: mirin)
4. Place a otoshi-buta on the pan (Use foil as a lid and place directly on the ingredients, this helps the ingredients soak up the goodness). Heat until most of the broth is soaked up.

I was surprised when I saw a small Japanese kabocha being sold at a Farmers Market. Kabocha is a pumpkin or it could also be a winter squash of Asian variety according to Wikipedia. 

If you follow my blog, you may have realized that I've been cooking a lot of "boiled" dishes lately. The technique is to "niru" (煮る). When you cook ingredients in a broth, the broth is sucked up by the ingredients, ending up in a very tasty dish. This technique can be used for vegetables, meat and seafood. The best thing about it is that it is so easy. You just prepare the broth (probably just a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, etc), toss in the ingredients drop a lid and wait for the broth to be soaked up! 

The dish I'm introducing today is a Japanese kabocha nimono (煮物). Kabocha boiled in Japanese broth. It's sweet but savoury. The more you leave it in the broth, the more intense the taste will get. So be careful in boiling the ingredient too long! 


Ingredients:

• 1/4 of a kabocha (a fairly large kabocha)

Broth

• 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Japanese mirin
• 2 tbsp Japanese sake
• 1 - 2 tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you like the dish)
• 3/4 - 1 cup of water

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a hot pan. Heat until it starts boils.
2. Once the broth starts boiling, toss in the cut pumpkins. (Cut them into bite-size pieces)
3. Place a piece of aluminum foil directly onto the pumpkin. This is called "otoshi-buta" which means to drop a lid directly onto the ingredients. This will help the pumpkin truly soak up the broth. Keep heating on MEDIUM heat.
4. Heat until the broth has been completely soaked up by the pumpkins. 

Note: Mix while heating so that the pumpkin is heated evenly. Also, you can adjust the heat to low since the aluminum foil lid can contain a lot of heat.

I packed the leftovers in my bento the next day. Became tastier than the day before! 

With all the amazing vegetables in season and my visits to the farmers markets here in San Francisco, I've been needing to find a way to consume the vegetables but in an easy manner; especially for those weekday dinners at home after work. I've discovered the simplest Japanese vegetable stir fry recipe!

Ingredients (for 2 people):

• Any vegetable(s) you like  (e.g. 1 zucchini, 1 onion, broccoli)
  
• Any other additional ingredients (e.g. mushrooms)
• 1 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tsp Hondashi (Japanese soup stock)
• 1/2 - 1 tbsp sugar
• Oil

Steps: 
Simply stir fry the veggies your pan until they are cooked through, then add the Hondashi, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Heat until water is evaporated. 


It's delicious and makes your dish taste like a true Japanese dish despite its simplicity and ease! Please give it a try! 

It goes well as a side dish with grilled chicken, grilled fish and even my favourite natto! 

One of my favourite destination in San Francisco so far are the Farmers Markets! There are so many around the city all throughout the week and the quality of vegetables and fruits you get there are outstanding. My favourite so far is the "Heart of the City Farmers Market" in Civic Center. If you follow my Instagram, you should already know that I got 2 large daikons, 4 apricots/peaches, bitter melon and zucchinis, all for $3. I also got a bag full of delicious onions and zucchinis for $1 each last week. You get fruits and veggies in season directly from the farmers, how amazing is that?! 

One vegetable I've been seeing a lot at these Farmers Market recently are eggplants! 

I've already introduced the ginger eggplant stir fry on this blog, but today I'll introduce something more simple and easy. A simple Japanese stir fry, somewhat like a teriyaki sauce! 

May I warn you that my boyfriend and I just could not stop eating this. It was so tasty, went perfectly with Japanese rice; just unstoppable.

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant
• (Optional) Any other vegetables of your choice
• 1 tbsp oil of your choice (I use coconut oil or olive oil)
• 2 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• (Optional) A hint of sesame oil

Steps

1. Cut the eggplant into slices and soak them in water for a couple of minutes.
2. Heat up a pan with oil.
3. Once the pan is heated, toss in the eggplants (and additional veggies if any).
4. Once the vegetables get soft and heated, add the sugar.
5. Once the sugar is disolved, add the soy sauce. Heat for a couple more minutes until the soy sauce settles into the veggies. Add the hint of sesame oil at the end for a savory smell prior to serving.

So I've begun my life as a fulltime employee in San Francisco. Absolutely loving it so far. Starting my second week, I decided to pack obentos to work! There are cute cafes around office but they are all crowded and the last thing I want to do is wait in line! I've never really packed true Japanese obentos myself. I've always watched my mom though. I decided to start simple. A bed of rice with furikake, tamagoyaki and some stir fried veggies. Absolutely perfect. 

How to make a simple but delicious and safe to eat obento? Read below! 

Rice

• I cooked the rice on timer mode so I can pack fresh rice in the morning. Let the rice out to cool before packing it up.
  
  

Tamagoyaki (Japanese sweet omelette)

• Click here for the link to the recipe. Once you have cooked it, wrap it up in saran wrap and store it in the freezer! In the morning, take it out of the freezer and pack it into your obento. By the time it's lunch time, it will be defrosted and delicious. I promise.
• After learning the successful result of my frozen tamagoyaki defrosted by lunch time, I've decided to make batches of them before hand on the weekends so I don't have to do it every night prior. (Yes, my boyfriend and I absolutely LOVE tamagoyakis and can't get enough of them)
  
  

Stir fry veggies

• I simply stir fried veggies (like zucchini, onion, garlic, mushroom, salt and pepper) and store it in the fridge until next morning.

Tortillas are very expensive here in Japan. I went to a local supermarket (known to provide low prices) and found 10 tortillas for around $6. Ouch. This didn't stop me from sharing the concept of wraps, dips and spreads to my family in Japan. I decided to make my own tortillas instead! I make my own pizza with my boyfriend sometimes so this tortilla making ended up being very similar to that.

- - - T O R T I L L A - - - 

My first homemade tortillas ended up being chewy, soft and on the thicker side. Instead of wrapping things inside, we ended up dipping or placing the spreads and dips on top. After thorough research online about making tortillas, here's what I used:

• 1.5 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• A little less than half a cup of warm water (I highly recommend you adjust the amount of water you put in throughout the process while you kneed the dough)
• Salt 

Steps:

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, olive oil and salt together. 
2. Start to add in the warm water (little by little!) while you mix the dough. We want the dough to become like pizza dough! Maybe as soft as your ear lobe.
3. Settle the dough in saran wrap or in a kitchen towel for a while.
4. Separate the dough into sections. Roll them into balls and flatten them so they are thin like tortillas. 
5. Place them onto a MEDIUM heated pan and cook both sides for approximately 1 minute each.
6. After you're done cooking them, place them onto a plate and cover it with saran wrap or a towel to prevent it from drying out.

- - - D I P S / S P R E A D S - - -

Simple Yoghurt Guacamole 

• Mix 1/2 avocado, 1/4 to 1/3 cup of strained/greek yoghurt, salt, pepper, garlic (optional), onions (optional). This guacamole becomes super creamy! My absolute favourite. 

Garlic Basil Mayo

• Mix 2 tbsp mayo, 1/2 tbsp basil, salt, pepper and a little bit of minced garlic and mix! Goes great with meat, veggie sticks and bread.

Tomato and Basil Marinade

• Mix tomatoes, basil, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and minced garlic together. 

Hummus

• Blend 1 can of chick peas and 1 minced garlic clove until smooth. Then add 1 - 1.5 tbsp tahini (ground sesame seed paste), 2-4 tbsp lemon juice, salt, pepper and a few tbsp of the left over water from the chick pea can (~2 tbsp) and blend until creamy. You could also add olive oil into the mixture. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and other spices (if you like).

Love avocado? I do.

I've been meaning to use up the avocado I got at Whole Foods ASAP. What better way than to use it in a sweet dessert while your city is on lock down?

This pound cake uses no butter, no sugar. Instead I used avocado, cinnamon and honey! The pound cake turned out to be super moist, perfectly chewy and the taste emphasized more on the avocado. If you aren't an avocado lover, I suggest you add a little more honey or cinnamon to mask the taste of avocado!

Like always, my desserts are not as sweet compared to those desserts often sold in the US, so if you are a sweet tooth, make sure to add more honey. Perfect for breakfast or a snack with some lovely tea or coffee!

What You Need:
(For 5 inch x 2.5 inch container)

• 1/2 ripe avocado
• 4 tbsp honey (Remember, I don't make my sweets overly sweet so if you are a sweet tooth, add more!)
• 2 eggs
  
• 100g (1/3 cup and 1+ tbsp) all purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Steps: (Due to the simplicity, I'm going to go with text based steps rather than posting a photo for each step!)

1. Preheat the oven to 320F (160C)
   
2. Cut up the avocado into cubes (so that they are easily mashed up later) and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds
3. Mash up the avocado (I used a spoon/fork) until smooth, mix.
   
4. Add the honey little by little to the avocado, mix.
   
5. Add the eggs, mix.
   
6. Add the flour, baking powder and cinnamon, mix.
   
7. Pop into the oven for 35+ minutes. Stick a wooden stick into the cake; if there is no residue on it, it should be done!
   

As you all probably know, Boston has been going through a chaotic couple of hours with the suspect of the Boston Marathon Bombing incident on the run. With a "shelter in place" order, it was a great chance to use up some left over ingredients in the fridge!

"Negi Yaki" is basically a savoury pancake made with just green onions ("Negi"). You usually fold the pancake up and enjoy it like a crepe. I hid some cheese in mine. Since you fry it, the outside becomes very crunchy and since we use starch in the mix, the pancake itself becomes pleasantly chewy. The smell of the sesame oil is perfectly appetizing as well. I mixed some soy sauce, sesame seeds and chopped up garlic as a dipping sauce.

What You Need:
(Makes 1 pancake)

• A bunch of chopped up green onions/spring onions
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour (I used whole wheat)
  
• 1 tbsp starch (I used corn starch)
• 4 tbsp water
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp Hondashi soup stock

Steps:

1. Simply mix the ingredients in a bowl.
   
2. Heat a skillet on HIGH with oil (I put it about a tsp of olive oil), pour in the mix like a pancake. Fry till crispy.
   
3. Place any toppings of your preference (I put in some cheese), turn the heat down to LOW heat, fold the pancake in half like an omelette.
   
4. Fry on MEDIUM to HIGH heat until crispy on both sides. Make the dipping sauce and enjoy!

Izakayas are basically casual restaurants who concentrate on serving drinks and small Japanese tapas dishes such as edamame, fried chicken, salads, etc. Back when I lived in Japan, I went to an izakaya on a regular basis to enjoy the "All you can drink" menu as well as regular menus. There are fancy izakayas to regular type of izakayas. Izakayas made for specific target customers too; some izakayas focusing on seafood lovers, some on older business men. It's really fun to scavenge around for your favourite izakaya since there are so many; especially around popular stations. 

Back to this recipe of cabbage mixed with salt and sesame oil called "shio-kyabetsu" in Japanese. It's a very simple dish and very popular amongst izakaya lovers and yakiniku (Korean bbq) lovers. It's always served as an appetizer. It's just a perfect salad to accomodate other meaty dishes or alcoholic beverages. Please give it a try, it only takes a minute to make!

 What You Need:

• Several leaves of cabbage (chopped, I used around 5 leaves)
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• Salt and pepper (as much as you want)

Simply mix all the ingredients together. Yup, that's it.

Number of steps:  5 steps
Time taken: 15 - 20 minutes
Approximately 240 kcal per serving

About This Dish:
If you have followed my blog you probably know by now that I love chicken! With so much shredded cheese leftover in my fridge, I had to think of a quick and simple dish to make for dinner. This dish may sound childish and too simple, but let me tell you...It is definitely worth trying! The cheese is placed in the center of the chicken then is wrapped up. After cooking, the cheese then melts in your mouth. Additionally, the pan makes some of the melted cheese crunchy and irresistible. 

Enjoy with just salt and pepper! The taste of the chicken and cheese is perfection. 

You could also try frying or making this chicken a fake katsu using this popular recipe! 

What You Need:
(Makes 3 servings)

• 1lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Thigh
• Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup cheese (I used Trader Joes' Lite Shredded 3 Cheese Blend)
• ~1 tbsp oil (I used Trader Joes' Organic Virgin Coconut Oil)

Number of steps:  6 super easy steps
Time taken: 10 min prep, 20 min in oven.
Approx. 90 kcal per mini yaki-onigiri

About This Dish:
Onigiris (rice balls) are delicious even when they are not baked, but when the rice is dipped in soy sauce and are baked on both sides, making the onigiri crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, it's becomes a dish you will start craving for! They're called Yaki-onigiris. In Japan, my mom used to make these for lunch as it is easy and goes well with various side dishes such as chicken. It is also eaten at Izakayas along with some sake and yakitori. It's just a fun twist to your regular onigiri, please give it a try! 


You don't have to use fresh cooked rice. You could even use left over rice in your freezer or fridge to whip this up quickly for lunch! Just make sure you warm the rice up before you dip it into the sauce.

What You Need:
(Makes 11 mini yaki-onigiris)

• 2 cups of uncooked rice (Around 300g or 3 cups cooked)

The Sauce

• 1 tsp of Hondashi diluted in water (If you don't have this, don't worry about it, skip it)
• 2 - 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 - 1.5 tsp mirin
• 1 - 1.5 tsp sesame oil
• (Optional) sesame seeds

Number of steps:  3 steps
Time taken: 10-15 min

About This Dish:
Mochi, mochi, mochi. My favourite word and food. I whipped this dish up for my father who was craving for an "otsumami" with his sake and beer. In the fridge, I had a potato, so I used that! It turned out to have a great texture, very mochi like. I put in some butter and cheese so the taste is something an adult or child will love. You can make a ton of it and freeze it for future use.

What You Need:
(For 6 mini jaga-mochis)

• 1 medium to large potato
• 2 tbsp of potato starch (I guess corn could work too?)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tbsp butter (or margarine)
• Cheese (however much you like)

Number of steps:  3 steps
Time taken: 10 min
Approx. 120 kcal per serving

About This Dish:
 Though I've been attending school for the last 4 years in the United States, I still have no clue on how to celebrate Thanksgiving...We ended up ordering a "Thanksgiving dinner package for 2" at Whole Foods. Delicious, and it lasted us 2 days. 

With the mountain of sweet potatoes in my fridge, I decided to make this Japanese snack, "Daigaku-imo". Deep fried sweet potato coated with sugar (or honey). Some people eat it as a snack, some eat it as a side dish for dinner. All up to you :) The crunch and the softness which comes after is just something you must try. According to Wikipedia, this dish is called "University-potato" since it was a trending snack near Tokyo University in the Taisho period.


What You Need:
(2 serving, plenty to share between two)

• 1 large sweet potato or 2 small ones
• 1.5 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• Oil for deep frying
• Pinch of sesame seeds